Maldonado: Build more facilities to fix prisons

STOCKTON - Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado said the answer to fixing the state prison overcrowding issue is to build more facilities.

Jennie Rodriguez-Moore

STOCKTON - Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado said the answer to fixing the state prison overcrowding issue is to build more facilities.

Gov. Jerry Brown is under federal court order to continue reducing prison population by nearly 10,000 inmates, despite having signed a law that shifted responsibility of thousands of felons from state corrections to county jails and probation departments.

Maldonado, a Republican who is expected to run for governor in 2014, is traveling the state saying he plans to propose a reversal of AB109 in the November ballot. His remarks came at a hastily called and brief news conference Wednesday in front of Stockton City Hall.

Critics, however, say Maldonado is twisting facts about the bill and trying to spread fear among the electorate for political gain.

The Sacramento Bee recently reported that the NAACP sent a letter denouncing the former lieutenant governor for using "racial style" politics in displaying a picture of a black felon who was not released under realignment.

At Wednesday's news conference in Stockton, where few members of the media showed up, Maldonado called realignment an "early release program" of state prisoners and criticized lawmakers for not passing proposed changes to the law.

"Sacramento doesn't want to fix the problem that we're having today," Maldonado said. "So it leaves us no other choice but to go to the people of California."

Maldonado has started the Protecting California Families committee to spread his message with co-chairs that include Mark Klaas and Erin Runnion, founders of organizations in memory of their abducted and murdered children.

"This is what's going to happen: the language is going to be drafted. We're going to get the signatures. We're going to put it on the ballot. The people are going to vote for it. And we will pass it. And we will end this dangerous plan by Governor Brown called 'early release,'" Maldonado said.

"I think one of the first responsibilities of anyone elected to office has got to be safety," Maldonado said.

Maldonado said counties are not prepared to deal with the more violent criminals put under their jurisdiction through AB109. He said that California has the resources to build more facilities instead of removing prisoners from the state system.

Tenoch Flores, spokesman for the California Democratic Party, said Maldonado has not declared his candidacy and is already bending facts.

"And he's already resorting to scare tactics," Flores said. "This is supposed to be the new Republican Party but it looks and sounds like the old Republican Party."

In response to Maldonado's suggestions of building more prisons, Flores said "Is he proposing a tax increase? Because prisons don't build themselves and they don't come free.

"He can't have it both ways. We're just getting our fiscal house in order ... and that's something that took a lot of work to get done," Flores said.

Flores said for the first time in years the state has rolled out a balanced budget.

Maldonado had support at the event from the Rev. Dwight Williams, pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Stockton, and members of HOPE, or Helping Other People to Expand, and organization that provides recidivism prevention programs to parolees.

"I stand with (former) Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado in the opposition, as we need to make sure we protect our neighborhoods, our communities, our families from having this early release program to continue," Williams said. "We must protect our families, we must protect our children. It is vitally important that we do that today."

County Chief Probation Officer Stephanie James said realignment did not include early release from state prison.

Chief Probation Officers of California agreed to realignment, she said, because the officers believe probation can improve the outcome of the realignment population if it is funded correctly. And that would increase public safety.

"Refusal to implement realignment would have resulted in the early release of prisoners pursuant to the federal court order," James said in a written statement. "Lastly, we are working closely with our stakeholders to ensure we are addressing criminal behavior in a way that ends the cycle and makes our communities safer."